The State Water Resources Control Board has voted to return the Chowchilla Subbasin to the oversight of the Department of Water Resources, declining to place it under probationary designation under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
The subbasin was among seven critically overdrafted basins that faced possible state intervention after DWR deemed its original 2022 groundwater sustainability plan inadequate the following year. The department had expressed concerns over the pumping thresholds and insufficient actions to tackle land subsidence. Its determination triggered a state water board review, with the potential of placing it on probation, which would mandate well metering, registration fees and pumping limits, along with intensive state monitoring.
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Responding to the deficiencies, the local groundwater sustainability agencies in Madera and Merced counties collaborated closely with state staff. They revised the plan twice and submitted the final updated plan in March.
A water board assessment in April recommended the board reinstate DWR oversight, concluding that the revised plan resolved the prior gaps and no longer justified probation.
At the board meeting last week, Vice Chair Dorene D’Adamo praised the strong early engagement, describing the basin as the first to openly invite water board staff to participate. Board Chair Joaquin Esquivel emphasized that probation is avoidable “if there is strong leadership and coordination among groundwater sustainability agencies.”
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